Designing Tips
More blathering on about line screen.
Sorry about the trend, here just trying to nail down a flexible range for my shading, so I'm not forced to re-ink half of all my pages in a month. Maybe this will help someone else too?
LINE SCREEN
The line screen of a press or negatives produced on an image setter determines the resolution or the amount of detail that will appear on the printed piece. If your printed piece has only solid colors and line art - no screens or photos - then line screen is not an issue. If there are photos or screens present then line screen becomes a very important issue. Different types of presses are capable of printing at different line screens. For example web presses print well at 133 to 150-line screen while sheet fed presses have an optimum range of 150 to 200-line screen. Any press can produce a lower line screen well but a press cannot go above its optimum line screen without a loss of quality. The image will appear muddy because there is more detail than the press is designed to handle. Another factor that affects line screen is the paper that a job will be printed on. Printing at 200 lines per inch on very soft porous paper will produce a disaster. Even at 150 lpi the quality may suffer whereas at 133-lpi, the image may appear crisper even if it technically has less detail. For example, let's look at newsprint, which is one of the softest most porous papers there is. Its optimum line screen is 80 to 100-lpi. If we tried to print a 150-lpi image on newsprint it would look muddy and blurry because of the excessive dot gain. But the same image screened to 85 lpi would appear crisp and in focus. On denser glossy paper higher line screens can be used to achieve extremely detailed images, this is because the ink is less likely to spread out. It is important to talk to your printer about line screen before printing if in doubt, the line screen resolution will determine the resolution of your scanned photos and graphics. Examples of typical products and their line screens: Comic Books: 70 – 85-lpi,Newspapers: 80 – 100-lpi, Color Flyers, Coupons: 133 – 150-lpi, Color Magazines: 150 – 175-lpi, Fine Art Books & Magazines: 175 – 250-lpi.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Email to the Chief / Cartoonists Corner
Howard Cruse's Comics Coloring in Photoshop tutorial
Towards the bottom of the page are his comments doing linescreens or "zipatone."
Now for a few final words about Photoshop's conversion-to-screens process. If your drawing is going to be reproduced on high-quality slick paper, you can go for broke with a very high lpi setting. 120 lpi art is common in the glossies, as is 133 lpi. But for most uses 85 lpi or 100 lpi will produce a screen that looks very smooth to the average eye. If you actually want the reader you be conscious of the dots, you can lower the resolution as much as you like. Hell, you could even generate 6-lines-per-inch art, I suppose. But remember, the dpi resolution will remain at 600 dpi unless you specify otherwise.
Towards the bottom of the page are his comments doing linescreens or "zipatone."
Now for a few final words about Photoshop's conversion-to-screens process. If your drawing is going to be reproduced on high-quality slick paper, you can go for broke with a very high lpi setting. 120 lpi art is common in the glossies, as is 133 lpi. But for most uses 85 lpi or 100 lpi will produce a screen that looks very smooth to the average eye. If you actually want the reader you be conscious of the dots, you can lower the resolution as much as you like. Hell, you could even generate 6-lines-per-inch art, I suppose. But remember, the dpi resolution will remain at 600 dpi unless you specify otherwise.
Wired readers respond
Media and political junkies may recall Wired News played a key role in helping create the myth that Gore once awkwardly claimed to have invented the internet. Indeed, Wired's new Gore profile can't resist revisiting the tale in its headline: "He invented the internet (sort of)." The inventing-the-internet charade represented a new low in MSM campaign journalism; a case in which a fabricated story came to dominate the coverage. And make no mistake, it dominated. In researching my new book on Bush and the press, I went back to the 2000 election and counted more than 4,800 television, newspaper and magazine mentions during the campaign of Gore supposedly claiming to have invented the internet. The fact that it was not true seemed to be of little interest to a press corps often obsessed with tearing Gore down. (Gore was a fake and Bush was authentic, remember?)
The tale was first hatched by the Wired News, the "online home of Wired Magazine." On March 11 1999, Wired's Declan McCullagh posted a nasty article mocking Gore for his little-noticed comments to CNN's Wolf Blitzer that, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet." Inelegant wording perhaps, but Wired treated Gore's statement as an outrageously false claim. (McCullagh later bragged, "I was the first reporter to question the vice president's improvident boast.")
Monday, May 01, 2006
DIY
DIY
Jesica Abel's comics tutorial.
Screen tones:
Also known as zipatone, which is a company name of a company that no longer makes screen tones (or exists? I don't know). This is a plastic film with an even pattern of tiny dots printed on it that reads as grey on a printed page. You stick it on the spot where you want the grey, cut it to fit with an X-acto knife, peel away the excess, and then rub it down. Expensive, messy, and with the additional disadvantage of making most people's work look stiff, flat, and boring, screen tones are nonetheless desired by many a beginner enamored of Dan Clowes. I say, don't do it. However, if you are set on it, be sure not to use screens smaller than 42.5 lines per inch. If you do, when the dots reduce they will run together and make a visual mess. Best to use 27.5 or 30 line screens. Generally, use nothing darker than a 50% screen, nothing lighter than 20%. Make sure not to layer screens, or you'll get a moiré pattern, which looks psychedelic and bad, and is too complex to get into.
She's the quest of honor at the Olympia's Comic Fest this year.
Jesica Abel's comics tutorial.
Screen tones:
Also known as zipatone, which is a company name of a company that no longer makes screen tones (or exists? I don't know). This is a plastic film with an even pattern of tiny dots printed on it that reads as grey on a printed page. You stick it on the spot where you want the grey, cut it to fit with an X-acto knife, peel away the excess, and then rub it down. Expensive, messy, and with the additional disadvantage of making most people's work look stiff, flat, and boring, screen tones are nonetheless desired by many a beginner enamored of Dan Clowes. I say, don't do it. However, if you are set on it, be sure not to use screens smaller than 42.5 lines per inch. If you do, when the dots reduce they will run together and make a visual mess. Best to use 27.5 or 30 line screens. Generally, use nothing darker than a 50% screen, nothing lighter than 20%. Make sure not to layer screens, or you'll get a moiré pattern, which looks psychedelic and bad, and is too complex to get into.
She's the quest of honor at the Olympia's Comic Fest this year.
Olympia Comics Festival
Olympia Comics Festival
Yes I foolishly have a table at this upcoming shin-dig. Will I have anything worth looking at? Will I be able to use a deadline to induce a pavlovian Greener crunch-time productivity bonanza? Or will I be sharing the table with select groovy zines, local poetry, and exhibits of typesetting and tabletop printing from the bookstore?
Magic 8-ball says.... "The Outlook is Hazy"
Yes I foolishly have a table at this upcoming shin-dig. Will I have anything worth looking at? Will I be able to use a deadline to induce a pavlovian Greener crunch-time productivity bonanza? Or will I be sharing the table with select groovy zines, local poetry, and exhibits of typesetting and tabletop printing from the bookstore?
Magic 8-ball says.... "The Outlook is Hazy"
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